The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for decomposition treating waste articles having cured thermosetting resin as binder, which is excellent in strength and heat resistance and widely used as industrial material.
Thermosetting resins such as unsaturated polyester resin and epoxy resin have been used in molding compounds, laminated plates, adhesives, paints and the like, because they are easy to mix with fillers and inorganic additives and reinforced by fibers.
Those thermosetting resins are crosslinked by curing reaction to have a three-dimensional structure and generally become an insoluble and non-meltable solid. Since it is difficult to decomposition treat the cured thermosetting resin, those cured thermosetting resin wastes have been disposed of as not suitable for recycling and reuse.
With the waste disposal problem getting serious in recent years, meanwhile, there has arisen necessity of recycling those cured thermosetting resin wastes, prompting research and development of technology for recycling the waste resins as raw materials by thermal decomposition. For example, fiber-reinforced unsaturated polyester resin is widely used in large structures such as fishing boats, tanks and housing materials, and it is a serious problem how to dispose their wastes.
Cured thermosetting resins are distinguished by their hardness, strength, heat resistance, inflammability, chemical resistance and other properties. Those advantageous features have in return made their waste disposal technologically difficult.
Because of their strength, thermosetting resins are widely used as structural material, often with such materials as metal. Since metals are higher in price than thermosetting resins, it is more important to recycle and reuse such metals.
Though small in size, on the other hand, copper-coated laminated plates and IC molds containing epoxy resin, phenol resin or the like as binder further contain such noble metals as copper, gold, silver and the like in addition to paper, fiber and the like. That is, separation of those metals is needed in addition to the decomposition treatment of thermosetting resin wastes.
However, the conventional treating techniques were insufficient for recycling those metallic components as resources for reuse.
In view of those problems, the object of the present invention is to promote recycling the cured thermosetting resin wastes as resource for reuse, which the prior art has attempted with limited success.
In concrete, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple method and apparatus for decomposition treating waste articles containing cured thermosetting resins to reuse those waste resins and other components therein as resources.